Friday, October 28, 2011

Every day is different, or so I thought, however again
today, I find myself waiting for Welzorg, Richie banged into the door frame and
the bracket supporting the arm rest sheered off.

I phoned Welzorg right away and have been waiting
since 12.30; I have rung a couple of times, nearly lost hope only for the
doorbell to go and the engineer from Welzorg to arrive at 15 minutes before
17.00.

I am so happy that someone could get here I was told
they could send someone between 13.00 to 17.00.

Sadly the engineer hasn’t got the exact replacement
for the bit that broke off, so he has improvised a temporary fix and ordered
replacement parts.

What a tremendous relief that it’s done now and I can
get into the wheelchair and spend the evening in the front room.

Before today’s wheelchair drama, I had good
appointment with Kees from Aquarius.

Kees will use the same technique Summit used to make
my wheelchair seat, hopefully this happens soon.

All I need now is to get better wheelchair steering,
so Richie has better control of the wheelchair and going out will be safe.

First I will get Richie to put me in the wheelchair, so I can enjoy some time out of my bed, this
evening.

The jacaranda trees are blooming in Harare, draping its broad avenues
with canopies of purple and green. The shops are bustling, hotels and
restaurants are often full, children are at school, young couples are walking
in the park. No sign of a revolution here.

Coming to Zimbabwe after two spells in Libya
this year, I felt like they were not merely
the length of a continent apart, but on different planets. While north Africa has been convulsed by
revolution, life in Zimbabwe in 2011 has continued to flow in a comparatively
gentle, uneventful way.

President Robert Mugabe, immovable for three decades, has little cause to be kept awake at
night by last week's chilling images of a bloody, battered and bewildered
Muammar Gaddafi pleading for his life. Could it happen here? Not likely.

Okay Machisa, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association, told me: "The Arab spring did not go down well with the Mugabe
regime. Jailing those activists was a way of saying we don't want people to go
on the streets and demonstrate."

But there was plenty of fear in Gaddafi's Libya too.

What's different is
that Zimbabwe offers the illusion, at least, of freedom of speech and
democracy. On street corners vendors sell independent newspapers with virulently anti-Mugabe headlines and editorials. (TV and radio
remain a different story. Some newspapers too. One ruefully exclaimed: "If
only British politicians were as brave and selfless as Robert Gabriel
Mugabe!")

Whereas Libyans had no hope of removing Gaddafi except by desperate
force, Zimbabweans can channel their efforts into a political party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).

The MDC possibly acts as a sponge, soaking up revolutionary fervour that
would otherwise find expression on the streets.

I visited the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has survived beatings
and electoral fraud to become prime minister in a fraught power-sharing
agreement with Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

He lives in a relatively modest
three-bedroom house with a big, English-style garden surrounded by a high wall
with razor wire. The sound of birds and crickets fills the air. We sat in a
back office where an old campaign poster adorned the wall and Bill Clinton's
autobiography was among books on the shelves.

Does Tsvangirai envy the Arab spring? "No. It's their situation and
circumstances and conditions that dictated behaviour. One of the fundamental
things that I can say is that you cannot suppress people for ever. One thing to
learn from that is people will always cry for freedom. It is universal.

"We are in a different situation, we have different circumstances
and we have got our own way of dealing with our situation. That is why the MDC
has pursued change without bloodshed and I think we are correct."

Elections are expected in the next year or so, and with them the fear of
a return to violence and chaos.

For Mugabe seems unwilling to ever let
go of power, not least, some claim, because he fears prosecution for past
crimes under international law.

Three of the 10 longest
serving leaders have fallen this year – Ben Ali of Tunisia ruled for 23 years,
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt for 30 and the longest, Gaddafi, for nearly 42.

But all were in the Arab north. South of the Sahara, in "black
Africa", the winds of change are mere zephyrs. Still going strong are
Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (32 years), Jose Santos of Angola
(32), Mugabe (31), Paul Biya of Cameroon (29), Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (25),
King Mswati III of Swaziland (24) and Blaise Campaoré of Burkina Faso (24).

There has been some mild turbulence for
some of them this year but nothing to frighten
the presidents' horses. Far from Gaddafi's grisly demise, Mugabe seems destined
to go quietly into that good night. His greatest enemy is not the gun-toting
revolutionary with a mobile video camera, but time.

The octogenarian president makes mysterious trips to Singapore for
medical treatment, has been photographed falling asleep at meetings and,
according to a US cable released by WikiLeaks, is suffering prostate cancer that could spread and kill him by 2013.

Gossip about his ailing health now grips Harare's bars, diplomatic
circles and international newsrooms already transfixed by 93-year-old Nelson
Mandela's pulse. I asked one analyst if all this speculation is paralysing
politics in Zimbabwe. He replied: "Mugabe's health is politics in
Zimbabwe."

Tsvangirai gave this view: "President Mugabe's health is a national
question, a national concern. Why? Because when you have a partner whose state
of health is unpredictable, and that partner holds the key to the unity of the
opponent, what is likely to be the outcome should he die is instability in the
party, which leads to instability in the country."

It was a question that arose with Saddam Hussein in Iraq and now again
with Gaddafi in Libya. Once the linchpin of dictatorship is yanked out, must
infighting and anarchy follow? Some believe that Mugabe, whose reign is as old
as independent Zimbabwe itself, is the toxic glue that holds his party and
country together.

But others point to neighbouring Zambia, where recent elections saw the president accept
defeat and a democratic transition of power.
Rupiah Banda is little known around the world and his unbloody, unspectacular
fall gained only a fraction of the coverage of Gaddafi. But it may have been
just as revolutionary in its way – and just as unnerving to that cabal of
ageing dictators.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Today was not the day we had expected, we thought that
someone from Welzorg would be here to lower my arm support as arranged on the
phone yesterday with Edwin from Welzorg.

Instead of someone calling between 08.00 and 13.00 as promised,
no one came and there was no phone call either to let me know what was happening.

At 15.15 still no one, so I phoned, I spoke to a woman
who put me on hold, while she tried to find out what happened, after several
minutes she, told me she needed to investigate further.

Then she transferred me to a colleague, he didn’t want
to give his name, not good PR for his company, he kept saying Welzorg when I asked
his name, eventually he told me

It turned out, he knew nothing so I had to repeat my
story, then, he also made inquires, he told me the engineer had been delayed
helping with a couple of accidents, but he. would be with me soon.

By the end of the call it was 15.30, they had kept me
hanging for 10 minutes and at the end I still was none wiser as to when someone
would help me.

Since I got the new wheelchair on 10th October,
I have been in terrible pain beaue the arm supports were 10 cms too high, my
shoulders hurt lots, hopefully there won’t be lasting damage, but there could
be.

At 16.30 I tried to speak to my case manager, she is not
there on Friday, René, the secretary said she would see if she could find out
when the engineer would be here, she called me back, and told me he could be
here at 17.30.

In the meantime I had spoken to Welzorg, who put me through to an engineer,
he was miles away in Almere, couldn’t help until much later in the evening or Saturday,
he couldn’t give me a time, the prospect of another day of endless waiting was
not acceptable.

Our friend Cecile, who was visiting, phoned Welzorg yet
again, she explained my situation, she found out they couldn’t do anything;
they would report it on Monday.

Just as Richie was about to put me in bed at 18.35,
the bell rung, it was Rick, a Welzorg engineer within 15 minutes he had lowered
the arm supports, and at 18.50 he was finished.

Turns out he was from Leiden, 40 minutes from Amsterdam,
his shift should have ended two hours previously, he still had a call n Leiden,
and if he was lucky he would be home at 20.00.

Welzorg-zorg means care, yet they seem to have none
for either their customers or their employees, thanks to Rick, the overworked engineer
I can sit without pain.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

More problems with blogger today, I couldn’t post the
labels on my English blog post for most of the day nor edit and post my Dutch
post.

Until just now when it finally worked, with the same labels,
and the same text in my Dutch post, but that’s not weird, it’s just blogger.

Its nice to have some small victories, like the phone call
at midday, it was Edwin from Welzorg, Edwin called to make an appointment to lower
the arm supports

Edith noticed when I got the new seat on 10th October,
that the arm supports on my wheelchair were 10 cms too high, causing me to sit painfully
hunched.

She immediately phoned Percy who promised to send
someone right away, finally after waiting for 11 painful days I was offered an appointment
next week Thursday.

This was not acceptable; not another uncomfortable week,
so I said but Percy promised a quick appointment on Monday 10 October.

Edwin’s response was to say the appointment would be tomorrow
between 8-13, which was brilliant, just what I wanted to hear, I am looking
forward to sitting painlessly tomorrow afternoon.

Hopefully the burocratic paperwork will get done soon,
so Welzorg can order the new steering, so that trips outside will finally be
safe, with the correct steering, not the one they gave us last November, which
is only for indoors.

No wonder I fell, luckily I didn’t get very badly
injured when I fell head first out of the wheelchair, Richie felt guilty for
months and it was the mobility advisers fault for advising the wrong steering.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Today has been a cold, rainy overcast day; one of
those days where being indoors was a good idea, especially with the heating on.

After I did my arm exercises, with a little help, and Richie
my leg exercises as well as massage, he sat me up in bed.

After brushing my teeth, washing my face, I took my baclofen
tablets; I was ready to get on with the day.

Richie got the table and my laptop; quite soon I was
listening to the news, reading my e-mails and feeling pretty good.

The
BBC radio news was still about Liam Fox’s resignation as Secretary of State for
Defence for Defence Secretary, for breaching the ministerial code of conduct.

‘’
Fox's relationship with a close friend Adam Werritty attracted
extensive media attention and eventually led to Fox's resignation.

Werrity, had
been best man at his wedding, had lived rent-free in Fox's flat, and been
involved with him in business and in the conservative Atlanticist think-tank The Atlantic
Bridge.

While Fox was Defence Minister, Werrity had visited
Fox at the Ministry of Defence on many occasions, had accompanied Fox on
numerous official trips, attended some of his meetings with foreign
dignitaries, and had used official-looking business cards which said he was an
'adviser' to Fox, all despite having no government post.

The media raised
questions about Fox's judgment in allowing this to happen, the nature of the
men's relationship, and the source of Werrity's income.

The
full list of Fox's meetingsfor his time in office
to date, 20 May 2010 to 8 October 2011, was published by the MoD after 7 p.m.
on 10 October 2011and revealed that Werrity was
present at 40 of Fox's 70 engagements in that period.

In
2005–6, Fox used public money, from his expense claims as an MP, to pay Adam Werritty.’’

They are now investigating where the money came from
which paid Adam Werrity, money was apparently given to organise peace conferences
and not to finance Werritty.

Many questions remain such as what about the financial
backers who must have hoped to benefit, were national security issues breached,
many questions remain it could get interesting.

I have had a pretty good day, there was a blip when Richie
took the dogs to the dog toilet this morning, as soon as they were gone I needed
the toilet too.

Nearly got to the toilet on time, but didn’t, we did
get to the bathroom and after a lovely shower, dressed in red and black, wearing
Nina Ricci perfume, my equilibrium was restored.

Monday, October 17, 2011

It’s getting colder now, very noticeable that autumn is
well underway, the last days of warm weather has gone until next year.

Funny how I hate summer ending, the long dark nights
starting, and especially the clock going back, at the end of October, which always
makes me feel robbed of the beautiful autumn sunsets.

This year I am enjoying the dark nights, I will even
try to put up with the clock without much fuss, who knows this year it may actually
work.

Writing that makes me laugh, I can’t see me suddenly
not getting annoyed at losing an hour, everyday until March next year.

Can’t see myself not having a rant at some point about
burocrats making decisions which have such big affects on our lives.

Maybe who knows and I have really become a patient
relaxed and laid back woman, I wish that were true, I almost believe its true,
but I know that is make belief.

Having Multiple Sclerosis has forced me to be something
I thought, I would never be, which is patient.

Amazing for me to experience being patient, I think that
is a big achievement for someone as impatient as I am.

I realised that it was pointless being impatient as I am
not able to move, I can’t be like I used to be, better for me to take it as easy
as I can, to adapt to my situation now, maybe not patient just realistic.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Beautiful sunny day today, it was quite warm too, 19 degrees
which is quite wonderful for the 14 of October.

Lovely to see happy people enjoying this unexpected
warm sunny weather, I hope it’s like this tomorrow too.

I have decided to have a relaxed day today, it’s been
quite a week, and I need to take stock, I am glad that I found the company that
Maurits has made an appointment with.

I hope they will be able to make something so that I can
be able to sit supported, be nice to be well supported so that I don’t sag and
corkscrew.

Like I do now, it makes life very uncomfortable for
me, be so nice if that could be resolved.

For now I shall enjoy this evening, look forward to
Later with Jools on BBC2 and The Horrors, and a band from Southend, Essex, near
where Richie comes from

Tomorrow I hope Wales will win against France in the
semi final in New Zealand of the Rugby World Cup.

I had to laugh when we heard on the news that Liam Fox,
the Defence Minister had to resign because he had ignored the Ministry of Defence
rules.

After working for 40 years to become Prime Minister, he
has thrown it all away by allowing his best friend to act as his unofficial
advisor, and sidestepping the civil servants who are there to protect the
minister.